Bulleit Rye

Up until last year my only experience with rye was some bottom shelf stuff I’d tried while travelling around the USA, so I wasn’t so into it. Then I got hold of a sample of Old Scout Smooth Ambler, and it all changed. Bulleit is one of the only Ryes available in Israel (along with Jim Beam and very recently Sazerac) so I got a bottle for when I wanted something a little different. It has some story and is called ‘frontier whiskey’ but it’s likely just some made up marketing nonsense.

Something I didn’t know until I started exploring rye is that the vast majority of rye whiskies in the USA come from only a handful of huge industrial distilleries who then sell it off to the various bottlers to age and bottle (or just bottle) as they like. This one comes from MGP in Indiana.

This wasn’t bad. Didn’t have the body of some of the more upmarket ryes I’ve had, but smelled nice and tasted good. It’s a really good baseline rye, glad it’s available locally for when I need it and at a reasonable price.

EDIT: I previously listed the age as 2 years for a lack of age statement, but some friends on reddit drew my attention to the fact that if a straight bourbon or rye carries no age statement it must be at least 4 years old. If it’s younger than that it must carry an age statement.